Public opinion sinks super-city
These days, after the National Party winning the general election last September, when workers still lack the confidence to take militant action, and when there are injustices all around, any successes against the forces of reaction are gratifying. The decision by the Local Government Commission to throw in the towel and drop their Wellington and […]
NZ Post – Privatisation by Stealth?
Tomorrow New Zealand Post will. continue its removal of road side post boxes. This is privatisation by stealth says the Postal Workers Union. We’re reprinting their statement below: “At the same time that NZ Post is quietly engaged in the removal of many of its road side post boxes and reducing its delivery service, private mail company DX […]
Class, democracy and post boxes in Porirua
There is not a single post box in Cannons Creek. Amongst the suburbs that constitute the Eastern Ward of Porirua – Rānui, Cannons Creek, Waitangirua, Ascot Park and Aotea – there is no post office, or post shop within a private store, to serve a population of 20,000 residents. Unbelievably, there are only three post […]
Cruel and Usual: Housing NZ Kick Out Tenant
Housing New Zealand has done an about face on its duty of care towards its tenants with more stories coming out every day. Even the mainstream media has picked up on some of the abuses such as the elderly disabled man getting kicked out of his house in Mt Roskil, or the continued stories of […]
Opinion: Capitalism and the Right to Die
Kevin Hodder, a member of the ISO, submitted this opinion piece to prompt reflection and debate. As I write this, Lecretia Seales, a terminally ill lawyer, waits to find out if the High Court will grant her doctor immunity from prosecution in the event that they aid Seales in committing a conscious act of suicide. […]
Nice Work if You Can Get It
Nice Work if You Can Get It; Notes from a Musician’s Diary By Don Franks (Steele Roberts, $19.99) If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to be a fly on the wall of the social functions of the rich and powerful but not be tainted by that experience, then Don Frank’s Notes are […]
James Shaw – a New Direction for the Greens?
On Saturday the Greens elected a new co-leader. The winner was James Shaw, a relative newcomer to parliament and national politics. But who is he? Before this election few had ever heard of him. James Shaw grew up in Wellington and completed an MSc in sustainability and business leadership in London in 2005. He continued […]
The Budget: State of the Nation
Bill English’s “boring budget” is full of miscommunications and misleading information, fairly typical of a right wing government that wants to hide what it really has planned. Included in this budget is the giving away of state land in Auckland, the continuation of massive changes in the public sector and of course wildly hopeful expectations […]
Budget 2015 – Normalising Poverty
Workers on welfare will get an extra $25 a week. This is the “take home message” of Budget 2015. After promising a “boring Budget”, and downplaying any expectations of help for children in poverty, Bill English has delivered a substantial increase to the money struggling families will receive. Of course, there are strings attached. The […]
Should NZ recognise Palestine?
Should New Zealand recognise Palestine as a separate state? This is what the Green Party hope to see happen. In December last year Kennedy Graham MP tried to put a motion to Parliament that “this House call upon the government to [recognise] Palestine as a sovereign State, and looks forward to the day when it is accepted as a member of the United […]
